According to TechCrunch, Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous driving subsidiary, has rolled out its self-driving taxi service across six U.S. cities. However, a recurring operational hurdle has emerged: passengers frequently neglect to fully close vehicle doors, rendering the cars inoperable until manual intervention. To mitigate this issue, Waymo has initiated a pilot program in Atlanta in collaboration with food delivery platform DoorDash. Under this arrangement, DoorDash couriers are compensated $6.25 per door-closing task, with an additional $5 bonus upon successful verification. This approach follows a prior experiment in Los Angeles, where Waymo partnered with roadside assistance provider Honk, incurring costs up to $24 per intervention. Waymo has confirmed that future vehicle iterations will incorporate automatic door-closing mechanisms, but for the present, the company is leveraging gig economy workers as an interim solution to ensure seamless service continuity.